LongestRoad Run7
17 Horse Moon, 1372
After the "cutest snitch in the whole wide world" left us, we continued heading toward the portal. I cast Seeming and put on some demon-guises for us. It should keep the heat off of us. Especially if that girl snitches on the "shiny people" who helped her.
Right outside the cave, there is something there. It keeps changing its form, but is always missing a leg. Besides the injury though, it looks fine. And friendly. It has no idea of why it's here, doesn't know what it is, and is too weak to fight whatever is inside the cave. I deem it worthless, but out of the "goodness of our heart" the rest of the crew carry it along. Because sure, why not? It couldn't possibly be a trap...right? *sigh*
Did I mention I dispelled everyone's Seeming disguise right before we entered the cave? Sometimes I wish I were at home, cradled with a few tomes about the history of Analyze Dweomer, or maybe a nice tome about the Sociology of Dragons. There was an interesting novel about the memoirs of a not-too-stuffy Paladin released a few months ago. I wonder if she wrote about that time I dropped a hint about the devil cabal she was- I'm digressing.
At least the tagalong was quiet. Hopped on someone's back and folded itself up tight. Just like our Child of Neth here. Oh wait, they're both Children of Neth. May as well combine them, then. Good thing they have that hive mentality. The Child is a bit bigger, but it has the combined knowledge of the two. I approve.
With that issue handled, we headed deeper into the cave. The good news: there's a portal at the end of the cave. The bad news: a Demon Flesh Golem is guarding it. Of course everyone who approaches the portal is "clearly" a minion of Pazuzu and must be killed for the glory of Graz'zt. Fantastic. Go Murder Brigade (TM) Go!
Horrid Wilting apparently hurts a lot. Well, if you have a circulatory system it hurts. I wouldn't know. But the party did. Querca especially, since she is plant based. I saw a few Blighters one day do this to a forest, the druids nearby weren't too happy about it. At any rate, the golem's opening attack was pretty good at angering the Kill Squad. Unfortunately, only Death spells have any effect on it (great, let me check on how many of those spells I have. Oh right, NONE.) So Querca, Ellowyn and I play cards or something in the corner while the others finish it off. Now then, through the portal.
Ice. Lots of it. Everywhere. The walls? Ice. The tables? Ice. The windows? Ice. It's an ice palace. And if you break or melt something, it regrows. And someone, somewhere, is laughing. At us? Not sure. Hmm, a floating stairwell. And the laughing sounds like it's upstairs, somewhere.
There is a half-drow half-fire elemental tied to a chair. Her name is Chara, and she's been here for quite some time. This is her Prison of Ice, compliments of Graz'zt. She's quite bored by us, I guess Graz'zt's goons must tease her everyday about this. Probably waste their time gloating about their latest accomplishments and such.
As the old saying goes "The enemy of my enemy is my ally." So we offer a deal: We will free her if she can open the portal located about 200 feet below her throne (through solid, regenerating ice.) Michael tries with his sword to free Chara, but Sil's fire breath is much faster. Chara tells us to back up if we don't want to get burned, and starts casting. Sil doesn't really care, since fire doesn't affect her.
Elemental Swarm is pretty. Draw a summon circle, fire elementals pour in, then a few larger elementals join the fun and melt ice, straight down. We had to wait a few minutes for things to cool down, but it was worth hearing the mysterious voice scream in pain. I suppose this Ice Palace was alive. Before it recovers, we jump into the next portal.
I hope we find what we were looking for here. And soon, before any major powers find us.
